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Israel Won't Commit National Suicide to Please Britain
(Jewish Chronicle-UK) Maj. (ret.) Andrew Fox - Britain's latest sanctions are intended to bring a two-state solution closer, yet the British government possesses neither the leverage to impose one nor the means to guarantee Israel's security afterwards. Israelis are being asked to commit national suicide. Israel's narrow coastal plain contains much of its population and critical infrastructure. The West Bank's high ground overlooks that concentration of people, including the approaches to Ben-Gurion Airport. The Golan Heights and Mount Hermon offer similar advantages in the north. Israeli security presence in the West Bank buys warning time and space to halt an attack. It is an abject fantasy to expect Israel to relinquish the West Bank's strategic depth while Palestinians retain their ambition to destroy Israel from the river to the sea. The two-state solution will not happen under these conditions, however often British ministers repeat the phrase. Palestinian attacks prompt tighter Israeli security measures. Breaking that cycle first requires pressure on the Palestinian leaders and institutions that sustain the violence. Palestinian responsibility should become the lynchpin of British policy if we are serious about peace in the Middle East. Diplomatic and financial support should be entirely contingent on ending incitement and dismantling the systems that reward attacks. Britain's sanctions on Israel offer ministers a cheap, crowd-pleasing way to display resolve while moving not an inch towards peace. Israelis will keep the ground they believe they need to survive, and Palestinians will remain behind their checkpoints for as long as they preach the destruction of Israel, indoctrinate their children to hatred, and reward violence. The writer, a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, served for 16 years in the British Army.